South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
Preventing another surge
Florida officials consider curfews, beach closings as spring break looms
Spring break, that booze-filled rite of passage for stir crazy college coeds, might be dead on arrival this year thanks to the coronavirus. But some wary South Florida leaders aren’t counting on it.The thought of thousands of mask-free college students mingling on the sand the way they did last year — just when the deadly pandemic was taking hold — has some officials talking of curfews and maybe even beach closings to prevent another surge.
Steve Geller, mayor of Broward County, says college kids should really stay home this year.
“The county is not promoting Spring Break,” he said. “It’s a bad idea.”
Some worry spring break 2021 could turn into a superspreader event, especially with experts warning of a highly contagious variant of the virus first identified in the United Kingdom. The U.K. variant has spread rapidly in recent weeks, accounting for up to 15% of new cases in Florida.
“The big concern right now is the variant,” said Dr. Mary Jo Trepka, chairwoman of the Epidemiology Department at Florida International University. “The U.K. variant is associated with a higher risk of transmission and mortality. To have spring break on top of that could be very dangerous.”
That fear is not lost on Geller, who has staff working on a countywide curfew that could be imposed during spring break if needed, shutting down bars and restaurants at 11 p.m. or possibly midnight. The county commission would vote on the proposal Feb. 23.
If approved, the curfew would only come into play if bars and
restaurants that serve alcohol fail to enforce mask and social distancing rules designed to curb the spread.
“If there aren’t college students shoulder to shoulder drinking from the beer bong, then we would not need to implement the curfew,” Geller said. “If we find a lot of bars where it’s girls gone wild and shoulder-to-shoulder craziness, then we would stop it by implementing a curfew.”
Spring break gets underway in March and ends on April 10 this year. But schools across the country have canceled the holiday break this year, citing the pandemic. Instead, some colleges are ending the semester a week early or giving students days off throughout the school year.
The long list of colleges pulling the plug on the American tradition includes San Diego State University, Yale, the University of Michigan and a slew of Florida colleges: the University of Florida, Florida State University, the University of Miami, Florida International University and Florida Atlantic University.
The University of Michigan canceled spring break back in the fall.
“We really wanted to limit travel back and forth because we know travel does help spread COVID19,” said Rick Fitzgerald, vice president for public affairs. “We’ve already have the U.K. variant in our community. We are certainly not encouraging any of our students to travel.”
But that doesn’t mean the kids won’t come, especially with so many taking online classes that allow them to log in from anywhere.
Bill Brown, a Fort Lauderdale activist with a home on the beach, has his doubts about whether the college students will stay away.
“Is spring break dead?” he said. “We won’t know until it’s here. What’s going to keep students from coming down and taking classes online from their hotel room after partying all night? So
it’s still an unknown. We’ll see what happens.”
‘They are coming’
Dan Lindblade, CEO and president of the Greater Fort Lauderdale Chamber of Commerce, says he has no doubt the kids are coming back this year.
“They are coming definitely,” he said. “We track when springs breaks are going to occur and then we follow up with Airbnb and hotels to see what kind of occupancy we are getting. It’s showing the students will be here. We are seeing bookings pick up.”
Lindblade said he did not have figures, and hotels did not respond to questions about their bookings. But Lindblade said hotels and restaurants along the beach are already following safety protocols to control the virus’ spread.
Bars and restaurants can operate at full capacity but are required to keep tables 6 feet apart and enforce mask and social distancing rules. Not all have complied. Code officers have found crowds of bargoers shoulder to shoulder without masks in some businesses.
Business caught breaking the rules can face fines. Individuals can be cited but not fined under an order Gov. Ron DeSantis issued Sept. 25 prohibiting local officials from fining people for not wearing a mask.
Miami Beach is already warning spring breakers to stay away if they plan to break COVID-19 safety rules.
“If anyone is coming down here because they think it’s going to be an anythinggoes weekend, don’t bother coming,” Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber said. “We’re not Bourbon Street. If that’s what they want, go to New Orleans.”
But not everyone wants them to stay away.
Good for business
When it comes to hotels, bars and restaurants, Spring breakers are good for business.
And with temperatures hovering around 2 degrees in places like Michigan, the warmth of a sunny South Florida beckons.
Plus, flights are super cheap. A round-trip ticket from New York to Fort Lauderdale for a week in
March was priced at $47 on Wednesday. And the roundtrip fare from Detroit to Fort Lauderdale was only slightly higher, at $75.
Bookings for spring break excursions are down 70% this year, but have been on the upswing, said Jake Jacobsen, vice president of the Maryland-based travel group Student Travel Services.
“I do think a lot of people are going to be booking last minute,” he said. “They didn’t want to book earlier because they weren’t sure what was happening with COVID.”
Fort Lauderdale and Miami Beach are still making the list of top spring break destinations for 2021.
“You can’t talk about Florida spring break and not mention Fort Lauderdale,” said one travel site, Student Escape. “Close to all the glitz and glam of Miami and South Beach.”
Fort Lauderdale and Miami Beach were the first cities in the state to close their beaches last year. The two cities jointly closed their beaches on March 15, telling college kids spring break was over due to the pandemic.
Those beach closings ended up sending swarms of spring breakers to other beaches in Broward, including Hollywood and Lauderdale-by-the-Sea. When those beaches closed too, some spring breakers headed north to Delray Beach.
At the time, Delray Beach officials said they had no plans to close their beach.
That changed March 20, when DeSantis issued an emergency order to close the beaches in all three South Florida counties — MiamiDade, Broward and Palm Beach.
This year, Delray Beach officials say they will keep an eye on what other cities are doing to control spring break crowds.
“Delray Beach police do have a plan in place when it comes to spring break,” agency spokesman Ted White said. “We don’t discuss specifics. At this point, we do not have any info on beach closures.”
Last year’s beach closures likely saved thousands of lives, Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis said.
But he’s not keen on closing the beach this year.
“We shut things down because we did not want to see a superspreader event in our community,” he said. “But today we realize there are other ways to approach the situation.”
‘This is not over’
Trantalis doesn’t like the idea of a curfew, either.
“We know the virus does not go to sleep at midnight,” he said. “It’s not as effective as people think.”
Trepka, the epidemiologist from FIU, urged local government officials to “do anything within their power” to cut down on the spread.
“Until we get the population vaccinated, it’s not a good idea for people to travel,” she said.
Gelber, mayor of Miami Beach, says Miami-Dade County’s midnight curfew might not be strict enough. He’s willing to impose an earlier curfew and maybe even shut down the beach if things get out of control.
“I don’t think anything’s off the table,” he said. “We need a wake-up call. This is not over. And people are still dying in huge numbers.”
Both Miami Beach and Fort Lauderdale plan to increase police presence on the beach.
“We will have a doubling of our police presence,” Gelber said. “There’ll be police everywhere. We are going to close places down that are not following the rules.”
The Fort Lauderdale Police Department typically does not give details on strategic plans, but the mayor says the agency plans to be out in force.
At least one Fort Lauderdale commissioner favors closing down the beach again if that means saving lives.
“We did shut down our beaches last year, and that option is still on the table,” Commissioner Heather Moraitis said. “I don’t think a curfew would help. It’s either our beaches are open or they’re not. We really do have a pandemic we need to address. We do need to get our arms around this.”